Madras High Court on Monday acquitted the prime accused in the 2016 honour killing of a 22-year-old man in broad daylight in Tamil Nadu’s Tirupur district, and modified the death sentence awarded to five others to life imprisonment.

Shankar, a Dalit youth of Kumaralingam near Udumalpet, had fallen in love with Kausalya, who belonged to a higher caste, while they were studying in a private engineering college in Pollachi.

They had got married against the wishes of her parents following which the family had allegedly hatched a conspiracy to kill them.

On March 13, 2016, a three-member gang hacked Shankar to death. Kausalya also suffered injuries in the attack.

Passing orders on appeals, a division bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and M. Nirmal Kumar on Monday acquitted B. Chinnaswamy, father of Kausalya, and relieved him from all charges, including that of criminal conspiracy.

The bench also confirmed the acquittal of Kausalya’s mother and two others.

The high court sentenced the five other accused to life imprisonment for a minimum of 25 years without any right to remission.

It also ordered release of all those acquitted who are presently under incarceration if their custody is not required in connection with any other case.

Chinnaswamy and the others had been sentenced to death by a lower court in connection with the daylight murder that was caught on camera and evoked public outrage.

On December 12, 2017, the Tirupur district sessions court sentenced six people, including Chinnaswamy, to death for the murder.

Of the 11 accused, six were sentenced to death. Three others, including her mother, maternal uncle and a 16-year-old relative, were acquitted of all charges while two others got lesser sentences.

Challenging the death sentence awarded to them, Chinnaswamy and others moved the appeal.

The investigation officer in the case also moved an appeal against acquittal of Kausalya’s mother and two others by the trial court.

Kausalya, terming as “injustice” the acquittal of her father and death row convict in the case, said the government should go for an appeal. She said she would not rest till her parents are punished.

“The verdict is injustice and not justice to the killing of Shankar. It is shocking and disappointing,” Kausalya, who works in a defence establishment, said.

Reacting to the verdict, she told reporters at Coonoor that the state government should have taken a more serious approach to this case.

“There was a lot of difference in the approach with me when the case was going on in Tirupur court and the high court,” she alleged.